Saturday, July 14, 2007

The nation’s top doctor must tell the truth about the immense health risks associated with homosexual/bisexual/transgendered behaviors – not contribute to the liberal state of denial that precludes such a discussion. True compassion requires telling the hard truths, and lives are literally in the balance. We never said that Dr. Holsinger’s 1991 church paper was perfect or that it was the final word on homosexual health risks, but it is the start of a national discussion that is long overdue. So is the simple fact that homosexuals — “gays and lesbians” — can leave that lifestyle behind – another truth that Holsinger (once?) embraced and that earned him the fury of “fundamentalist” homosexual militants like Wayne Besen.

We expected more courage from Dr. Holsinger, a Christian man, than to play the tired, old Washington game of avoiding controversial moral (and health) issues using Clinton-esque evasions. How refreshing it would have been had he instead used his bully pulpit to answer Sen. Kennedy forthrightly about the very real risks linked to “gay” behaviors like anal sodomy — citing new data from 1991 to the present.

Christians and moral traditionalists are rightly concerned about being boxed out of the public square by secular-minded liberals – but the price to be “allowed in” must never be to deny our Biblically-informed conscience.

And so we reverse ourselves and urge the Senate to deny confirmation to Dr. James Holsinger for U.S. Surgeon General, with the proviso that we will return to his side should he discover the internal fortitude to put truth above politics and speak out on the special health hazards of homosexuality.